Wind beneath growing renewable sector’s wings confirmed
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The commitment by four major companies to establish manufacturing bases in the UK in support of the manufacture of wind power generation equipment was confirmed in Lords' debate recently.
During January's second reading of the Energy Bill, Lord Marland - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Energy and Climate Change - highlighted that four companies - GE, Siemens, Gamesa and Mitsubishi - have "agreed to sign up to a contract to start manufacturing in the UK", adding "we have been talking to others". Lord Marland underlined that this will create £300 million worth of new investment and new jobs.
In March last year, GE announced it is to invest €110 million to develop offshore wind turbine manufacturing facilities in the UK. The company will also locate design, application and service engineering resources for offshore wind here, creating up to 1,900 new jobs in total by 2020.
Last year too, Spanish wind developer Gamesa announced plans to site its worldwide centre of its offshore wind energy business in the UK. The plans, which will mean a €150 million investment before 2014, also include an offshore technology R&D centre and a turbine blade manufacturing plant.
And Siemens said last year that it was on track to build a new £80 million wind turbine factory by 2014, which will produce its new 150 m tall, 6 MW direct-drive offshore wind turbine for offshore wind farms.
Siemens, which is part of the SMartwind consortium that is developing a site at Hornsea and has stakes in the Gwynt y Môr and Lincs wind farm developments, has invested £8 million in an Energy Service training centre in Newcastle and set up a wind power technician apprenticeship scheme in conjunction with RenewableUK. By 2013, the company says it will have doubled its renewables workforce in the UK.
Most recently, Mitsubishi Power Systems Europe announced that it plans to invest up to £100 million in wind power-related research and technologies in Scotland. If it is found a viable market, the company could move forward in the creation of a major offshore wind turbine manufacturing site in Scotland, reported www.earthtechling.com.
Mitsubishi will open its Centre for Advanced Technology in Edinburgh, an engineering facility that will front its research, and is acquiring Edinburgh firm Artemis Intelligent Power (AIP), which consists of a team of engineers and technicians that specialise in hydraulic system development. The company will develop its offshore-specific 5-7 MW wind turbine in Scotland.
In September last year, the UK breached the 5 GW figure for wind power capacity and wind energy now provides enough power for close to 3 million homes in the UK.
